Amid turmoil, this NGO helps unite mentally-challenged boy with kin

Aparna Banerji

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Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 20

On March 31, 20-year-old Javed, who is mentally challenged, boarded a train to nowhere. His father Lukmaan, a rickshaw puller, launched a manhunt the next day to find him, but to no avail. Unable to find him for days, they lost hope they would see their child again in the middle of Covid lockdown.

However, the efforts of a Jalandhar-based activist as well as the Amritsar police ensured the return of the boy back to his parents days after he went missing from his home in Mayur Vihar, Delhi. The boy, who left home on the intervening night of March 30 and 31 after a fight with his mother, ended up in Amritsar. With the efforts of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled people (NCPEDP) and Jalandhar-based activist Amarjit Anad, who was informed about the child by a Lucknow-based NGO, the child reached back to his parents.

Bruised and beaten while on the road, for three days activists set up liasions with various ministries and NGOs to get the child home.

Amarjit Singh Anand said, “I received information about this child from a shopkeeper in Amritsar and through NCPEDP executive director Armaan Ali on March 31. With the intervention of the centre and the Amritsar police, the child was sent back to his home on April 4. It took several days for us to trace and retrace the child.”

Found outside a shop in Amritsar on March 31, the child ran away again after which through intervention from the ministry and Anand’s calls to both disability activists and the police in Amritsar – the child was traced to border village Kambo on April 3.

Various stakeholders who intervened to help find Javed include – the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Secretary, Shakuntala Gamlin, CEO, National Trust, Amritsar Police, Gurpreet Sapra, Director, Social Security, Commissioner, Disabilities, Punjab and Gurinder Singh, Chairman, Amrit Parivar Parent Association, Amritsar.

Anand said, “It took us three days of liasions and phone calls to finally trace the child. The Amritsar police played the key role. They found the child and sent him back to his parents on April 4. The Covid test of the boy was also conducted and finally he was dropped to his parents who otherwise might have been unable to trace him during the lockdown.”

Anand is also working for the disability sector for Covid in Jalandhar. He is also overseeing the helpline started for disabled senior citizens and widows in the district. Lakahan Sentmar, a neighbour of Lukmaan, said, “It was with the intervention of an activist from Jalandhar and another Delhi-based NGO that the child could be brought back. I found his parents grieving that he had taken a train to his village. Due to the lockdown, the family had lost all hope of finding the boy back. But due to active intervention in Punjab, the child was brought back to his parents. He had been hurt and one of his legs was swollen. It seems at places he might also have met some hostile elements, but at least now the family has got their child back. He is currently undergoing treatment for the injuries he incurred while he was away.”

The boy was traced to Amritsar

The boy, who left home on the intervening night of March 30 and 31 after a fight with his mother, ended up at Amritsar. With the efforts of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled people (NCPEDP) and Jalandhar-based activist Amarjit Anad, who was informed about the child by a Lucknow-based NGO, the child reached back to his parents.